ON THE OUTDOORS.

On the scent of the perfect smell

Successful deer hunters are finding it pays to pay attention to the aromas they emit

November 13, 2003|BY LEW FREEDMAN.

Ron Bice handled the oak tree branches carefully, the rubber gloves he wore acting as a barrier between his scent and any deer that might sniff it. He positioned a drip bag over a circular area cleared in the grass.

Bice, who was giving lessons in how to lure deer to hunters at a small private club near Springfield, Mo., was creating a mock scrape, an imitation of the type of place where deer may gather.

"Scents work," Bice said. "They truly can enhance opportunity. But if you use scent and you've contaminated the scent scene with your human scent, you've defeated the purpose."

Bice is a hunter who also is affiliated with the Wildlife Research Center in Anoka, Minn., a company that makes hunting products. He is a true believer in wielding every advantage to bring big bucks to the hunter. With archery deer-hunting season under way in Illinois and shotgun season beginning shortly, his thoughts are timely.

"They're not foolproof," Bice said of scents. "But they're pretty cool to have in your bag of tricks."

The days of a hunter heading into the woods with only a weapon for company and simply matching wits with deer seem to be gone. The sophistication in gear and equipment that can help a hunter continues to expand. Bows are more powerful. There are products on the market that help grow food plots to better attract deer. There are infrared game scouting cameras available. Lighter, shorter, more accurate firearms are being manufactured.

Hunters do not merely wear camouflage clothing; they wear clothes lathered in scent killer. Clothes are washed in scent-free detergent. Hunters bathe with scent-free soap and wash their hair with scent-free shampoo.

"You don't have to be 100 percent scent-free," Bice said.

But, he said, being scent-free means the hunter will be able to more easily bring a deer closer for a clear shot. "It's like us and skunks," Bice said.

There is a good chance grandpa never gave much consideration to this in his deer-hunting game plan.

Bob Gardner, 60, of Naperville has hunted for deer for 40 years with bow and shotgun. Things have definitely changed, he said.

"In the old days, you just went out in the woods," Gardner said. "I was probably smoking as I walked through the woods. I'm a lot more careful about scent now."

He laughs a bit about all of the gimmicks available to hunters these days.

"You can have so much gear you can't even get in the tree stand," Gardner said.

Bice, a bow hunter for 30 years, said it is possible to fool bucks into visiting a mock scrape. Deer create scrapes to mark breeding territory. They clear off vegetation until a spot of ground is bare. Then, typically using a branch that hangs about 5 feet off the ground above the scrape, they rub on fluids from preorbital glands. They also may chew branches, leaving saliva, and urinate on the scraped ground.

In "Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America," author Richard Nelson wrote, "Obviously, scent plays an important role in mating and other aspects of social life among deer, but because our own sense of smell is so rudimentary, we can never fully comprehend this dimension of their world."

Using scents and manufacturing mock scrapes brings the hunter into that world, Bice said.

Given that the hunter is trying to attract the deer when it's in a rut-addled condition, Bice said this is a little bit like women using perfume in a bar to attract men.

Of course, one deer's perfume is another man's poison. The big buck of your dreams may swoon over a special scent, but you probably don't want to spill it on your clothing. Take a whiff of a product called "Active Scrape" and try not to faint. Ingredients include "full strength natural doe-in-heat urine blended with strong natural buck-in-rut urine." Your next open bottle will be smelling salts.

The point is not what you like, but what deer like. A hospital-like IV drip also has been developed to slowly dispense liquids like Active Scrape onto the scraped ground. Hung from a branch, it drips the swell stuff gradually, and can be adjusted to drip only during daylight hours to convince deer to show up at a convenient time.

A clever contraption to bring deer within range of your tree stand. If this seems like a lot of trouble, how badly do you want to harvest a deer this season?